"Visiting Accident & Emergency"

Was called to go to St. Peter's A&E as my father was ill at about 9: 30 on a cold Monday in December. On arrival it was very clear that the department was very busy and that was still the case when I left at 1am. Although I was only there for about three hours it was very clear that the department was struggling to cope with the large number of patients. but to their credit the staff seemed to be able to cope with the work and still stay calm and focussed.

Most of the staff we met were very good but the one thing that struck me most of all was the wide variety in social skills between different staff. For example a medic called Imran and the junior surgical doctor (female) were both very pleasant and smiled and talked to you. On the other hand the surgical registrar(? ) effectively ignored us and carried on with almost no awareness that we were present - albeit that he did seem to sort out the problem so perhaps being focussed helps.

The other really obvious example of poor communication was in the minors area where both the doctor and nurse barked out the patients name rather than saying "Mr Smith, please" or something similar. If you weren't paying attention it would be very easy to miss being called and I wouldnt particularly want to respond to my name being called out in this way.

Finally can the taxi hot-line please have a phone that allows you to actually hear the other end?